Tuition may be rising—but for some students, living in tiny boxes is not an option.

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Purdue University

The First Street Towers residential hall at this West Lafayette, Ind., institution provides housekeeping service, personal bathrooms, and the privacy of single living. The university spent $72 million on the housing project, which was completed in 2009. It passes along the expenses to the students; a suite can cost more than $13,000 per academic year.

Photo: First Street Towers/Facebook

Temple University

This commuter college turned urban campus in Ann Arbor, Mich., started offering students luxurious digs in the Mitchell and Hilarie Morgan Residence Hall in 2013. The 27-floor tower features lounges with 70-inch televisions, a dining facility offering vegan and vegetarian meals, and suites featuring state-of-the-art appliances, full bathrooms, and flat-screen televisions.

Photo: Temple University Housing and Residential Life/Facebook

Rutgers University

Rockoff Hall, an off-campus residence, has large bedrooms with walk-in closets and fully equipped kitchens. Don’t feel like cooking? Students don’t need to go far: There’s a 7-Eleven and a pizza parlor on-site. They can also take advantage of grocery delivery. To burn the calories, a state-of-the-art gym is available.

Photo: Rockoff Hall/Facebook

Arizona State University

Students in Tempe, Ariz., enjoy resort-style living in Vista del Sol, an off-campus housing facility. The American Campus Communities property makes the academic life seem more like a breeze: It has a large swimming pool, lounge cabanas, barbecue grills, a theater room, a 24-hour help desk, and free tanning. Some units have private patios.

Photo: Vista del Sol/YouTube

Auburn University

Campus Crest Communities Inc., a company specializing in upscale dorms, opened The Grove for Auburn University students in 2012. It features private bedrooms and bathrooms, a rooftop pool, a tanning bed, and a fire pit.

Photo: The Grove Auburn/Facebook

University of Central Florida

"The Swedish Sauna and Sky Deck tanning area, complete with a tiki hut, provides a spa-like setting for you to unwind from exams and reinvigorate the senses," touts an ad for this university's NorthView housing. It also has a life-size chess board and a water volleyball court. Students better enjoy the digs while they can. In 2011, forty-two percent of attendees graduated from UCF with an average of $20,000 in debt.

Photo: UCF Housing/Facebook

University of California, Irvine

Built by one of the nation’s largest student housing developers, UCI’s Vista del Campo Norte dormitory features a swimming pool, a hot tub, air hockey, and a 24-hour help desk.

Photo: Vista del Campo/Facebook

Boston University

BU’s residential towers offer views of the city’s historic monuments, Harbor Islands, and the Charles River. One of them, the John Hancock Student Village (pictured on the left), dwarfs three older dorms nearby. You won’t find bunk beds and communal bathrooms here. Suites, private bathrooms, and common rooms have been elegantly furnished to match the sights. “After living like this, you graduate facing a terrible job market and having to live with rats in Brooklyn,” a BU student parent told the Boston Globe.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

New York University Abu Dhabi

Students who spend time abroad might expect rich cultural experiences, but NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus offers something a little more luxurious. New Yorkmagazine likens the 45-story high-rise to a “fancy beach resort” with a Middle Eastern flavor. Each floor features a kitchen, a Ping-Pong table, and a video game center. The building also offers free scuba diving lessons, horseback riding, and two workout facilities staffed with fitness trainers.

I Am Not a Loan! Victims of the Student Loan Crisis Take to Instagram

With nearly 60 percent of college students today borrowing federal aid money for expenses like tuition and textbooks and the current rate of student debt reaching more than $1 trillion as of 2012, students are demanding solutions for the debt crisis.

President Barack Obama has made some efforts. He recently proposed an amendment to the regulations on loan eligibility under the Higher Education Act of 1964 that will cut student aid for for-profit universities if their students fail to pay back their loan debts. He has also announced that for-profit schools would need to help students meet new standards of "gainful employment" or face closure. In the new national budget he increased funding for grants and work-study, but the public message is clear: More needs to be done.

I Am Not a Loan launched by The Education Trust, is pressing for change with a new campaign called #AccessMeans.. It has asked students and graduates to post images to social media answering one simple question: "What does access to education mean to you?"

“Recent data show that every year, more than 100,000 students are shut out of college, mostly because of costs,” says Iris Maria Chavez, spokesperson for the campaign, whose hashtag is #AccessMeans. “#AccessMeans is a campaign geared towards raising awareness on why students need affordable access to higher education.”

As you will see from the creative images in this gallery, the student loan crisis is about more than just rapidly rising costs and numbers. Each student who posts on Instagram and other online outlets humanizes the debt crisis and gets his or her voice heard.

“We want to empower those voices and to bring their stories and experiences to the conversation,” Chavez explains. “We hope the tableau painted by every photo, comment, and tweet articulates a sobering picture of the realities of rising student debt and compels our leaders to develop commonsense solutions to stop the student debt crises.”

It’s time for schools, governments, and banks to take aggressive action. Chavez says, “We are not a loan; together we can raise our voices to ensure that today’s college affordability crisis is but a bad memory.”

This article was created as part of the social action campaign for the documentary TEACH, produced by TakePart's parent company, Participant Media, in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates.

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While young people seek college degrees more than ever, the cost of higher education has skyrocketed—as has the demand for swanky amenities to match the hefty price tag.

From 1995 to 2004, only 17 percent of residence halls built on campus grounds were traditional-sized dorms, according to the Association of College and University Housing Officers International. Colleges now have to compete with private real estate companies that cater to undergrads with more sophisticated expectations. Instead of the tiny, character-building boxes of the past, apartment-style suites now dominate the student housing market. Some feature horseback riding lessons; others have hi-tech washers and dryers programmed to alert students when their laundry is done. Click through for nine not-so-humble collegiate abodes across the country.

TakePart’s parent company, Participant Media, is collaborating with Samuel Goldwyn Films on the distribution of the documentary Ivory Tower.

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TakePart is the digital news and lifestyle magazine from Participant Media, the company behind such acclaimed documentaries as CITIZENFOUR, An Inconvenient Truth, and Food, Inc. and feature films including Lincoln and Spotlight.